


Ablution

by Alecto



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Millennium World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-29 01:00:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5110652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alecto/pseuds/Alecto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryou has been chasing ghosts all his life. Following the spirit of the ring into the depths of the other Yuugi's memories was no exception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ablution

**Author's Note:**

  * For [livingxvxfaith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/livingxvxfaith/gifts).



The air was so stale that his nausea returned with each breath. Time and space lost meaning hours— or maybe eons ago. The Escherian labyrinth of rooms and traps twisted everywhere, folding in on itself. For all Ryou knew, he has been wandering this tomb for an eternity.

He ran a hand across the rough flagstones. He had no reason to look for a way out. His dark personality had abandoned him here to rot— to bury him in a tomb of his own making. In time, Ryou might petrify, his back still propped against this wall and facing the long hallway before him. He chuckled to himself.

There were worse ways to go— for example, starving to death.

"Yuugi! Yuugi!"

Or maybe he'd lose his mind first. That sounded a lot like Jounouchi.

"Where are you, Yuugi?" Another voice joined in.

And that sounded like Honda.

"Jounouchi?" His voice was a pathetic and thready sound. He coughed, choking on the dust gathered in his lungs. "Honda?"

From the darkness came the sound of pounding footsteps. Jounouchi's dirty sneakers broke through the shadows first, quickly followed by the rest of his form. Honda followed two steps behind him, and Yuugi and Anzu not far behind them. Jounouchi stopped, nearly falling over and taking Honda with him. Ryou recognized the apprehension immediately.

"Wait, how do we know this is the real Bakura?" Jounouchi screeched and pointed an accusing finger at him. "What if he also turns into a dragon and tries to grill us like the last one?"

Ryou could only guess at what had happened in the past to justify Jounouchi's reaction, but he couldn't blame him either. His dark personality had done nothing but undermine them from the beginning. He was most likely the reason they were also trapped here.

"No, that is the original Bakura." A ghostly figure sidled up to proclaim. The new arrival's eyes were dark and glassy. Ryou almost mistook him to be blind, but the intensity of his scrutiny suggested otherwise.

"Why are you guys here?" Ryou croaked, dread flooding his innards. The discovery of more people should gladden him, but he wondered if this meant the spirit of the Ring had finally won.

Yuugi furrowed his eyebrows. "This is my other self's inner heart. How did you get here?"

The stranger answered, low and authoritative, and his stony expression never changed. "The other Bakura left him here."

Ryou supposed being abandoned was a step above being imprisoned.

"We're going for my other self. Come with us, Bakura-kun," Yuugi urged.

Ryou nodded, and then stood on shaking legs. His dark personality was wherever the other Yuugi waited.

* * *

The world at the end of the labyrinth was simultaneously familiar and bewildering. An air of nostalgia permeated the scorching air. Ryou breathed it in as deeply as he could, in hopes of being able to recapture that feeling later. But as soon as they arrived, they were quickly swept up in the next adventure. Each encounter took them from the town to the palace, and then out to the desert with a stilted urgency.

The danger was real, but the order of events was too tidy. It seemed as if every time that he tried to examine their situation more closely, the next inciting incident would take place. Laying his eyes on the spirit of the Ring for the first time finally cemented this reality.

Ryou doubled over and gasped. He felt it as surely as if it was happening to himself— blood pooling inside his lungs and crowding out all oxygen. The other Yuugi's last attack with Ra had struck true and hard, throwing Bakura back and engulfing him in flames. Bakura was dying. Between each breath that Ryou struggled to take, he vacillated between mourning and relief.

Then time rewound itself. When Ryou's lungs burned, it was because of the heat and ashes from the burning village they fled through. But they didn't reach the Pharaoh this time, arriving only to glimpse his body falling into an open ravine.

Yuugi's wretched cry ripped hearts apart, and Thief King Bakura's cackled in the forefront.

"Even the gods favor me, Yuugi! I win this Game!"

Honda charged forward, fist reeling back for an attack. Ryou was torn, caught between holding Yuugi from diving in after his other self and saving Honda from himself. Concern for Honda won out, especially as Bakura hefted him into the air like a hanged man at the gallows. Ryou feared that Honda may be the next one to join the other Yuugi in the ravine. Maybe they were all next.

"Stop it!" he cried.

Bakura craned his neck, and their gazes clashed. Ryou was taken back by how different they were now. Bakura was a muscular beast of a man, hardened and scarred by his harsh life in the desert— a far-cry from Ryou's slender body. The most familiar sight was the Millennium Ring dangling around his neck. Ryou reflexively touched his unadorned chest. Like Yuugi, he didn't retain his Millennium Item when they came into this world.

"I didn't invite you to take part in this game," Bakura said with scorn.

Ryou could argue the point, but he knew what Bakura had always thought of him— weak and inconsequential. Instead, he raised his chin and demanded, "Let Honda-kun go."

Bakura raised a mocking eyebrow. "It's a bit late to grow a spine. You're in my world now. Do you think it's wise to defy me?"

The dimpled scar on his left hand itched. Ryou clenched his fist and said, "Yes, I do."

Bakura gave a shark's grin and with a cavalier air, he threw Honda. Ryou closed his eyes, braced himself, and reached out to catch his friend. No impact took place though. After several seconds, he cracked open an eye and glanced to his right, where Honda and Jounouchi were lying in a jumbled mess of limbs on the ground.

From his position mounted on top of his horse, Bakura nodded at Ryou. “Take care, little landlord, I’ll still need your body after my crowning victory here.”

* * *

Even without the Millennium Ring, they remained connected. As Ryou followed Yuugi through the dry and arid landscape— first in search of the Pharaoh and then his lost name, little pains pricked at him. Worse yet were the tiny thrills that raced down his spine— echoes of Bakura's dark excitement. Ryou wondered if he could concentrate hard enough, if his senses would lead him back to Bakura like a dowsing rod to water.

At the entrance of the Pharaoh's palace, Ryou stumbled and fell. It felt as if a lance had pierced his heart. When he lifted his heavy head, it was not the royal palace that stood before him, but a set of worn steps with a chipped facade and and a splatter of drying blood. The sun's light didn't reach this far underground, where it reeked of death and decay.

Bakura's hunched form at the top of the steps glowed purple. Bakura screamed as the light was wrenched from him and vanished. In that moment, the darkness in his lavender eyes were replaced with something unthinkable: fear.

"W-What is this place?" Bakura lifted both hands and stared at them with dawning horror. "What did I do...?"

He looked as if he had woken up from his worst nightmare and found that they'd come true. He looked like Ryou on the bad days. He looked lost.

A grain of sand peeled from Bakura's finger. Then another and another and another— until a stream of sand ran from his hand, then his forearm, then his hair. His face sagged as keratin and collagen melted away. Bakura screamed and plead, "What?! What's happening? Help me! Someone please help me!"

Without thinking, Ryou reached for the dissolving hand— the left one that bore a dimpled scar mirroring his own. He blinked and his fingers collided with the polished stone of the royal palace's entrance instead.

* * *

Three thousand years ago, there lived a boy named Bakura in the village of Kul Elna. He witnessed the massacre of his town's people at the hands of Pharaoh Aknamkanon's men. Seeking revenge, he sold his soul to a Great Dark God. This God used and consumed him until nothing of that boy remained.

* * *

Ryou forged on. Because even with Bakura's death, the traps and plans he laid persisted. Something more dangerous lurked beyond the horizon— the approaching footsteps resounded like the drums of war.

When Honda grabbed his wrist and dragged him over the gap and into the next room, Ryou saw a vision. He and Yuugi sat at the opposite end of a wide and deep-set table with the Millennium Puzzle suspended over it. Except there was a game board resembling Ancient Egypt between them, and it wasn’t actually Yuugi and himself. Small game pieces moved across the playing field of their own volition.

Everything became clear in that moment. Why they couldn't interact with this "past" like a true time traveler. Why the few who saw them understood and spoke Japanese. Then there was the time rewind incident and the unexplained paralysis a while ago. When Bakura had called this a game, he meant it in the most literal sense. Since the beginning, they had been railroaded into playing out some killer DM's twisted campaign.

Unsurprisingly, this DM didn't play fair.

Ryou glimpsed the Pharaoh's lost name, gilded in gold, before not-really-Honda forced him to follow. It was long enough for him to commit the hieroglyphics to memory. Down the stairs, they reemerged in the bowels of the tomb. Not-Honda finally released his hand, and Ryou scrambled back away from him.

"What have you done to Honda-kun?" Ryou pulled his hand to his chest, unable to shake the remaining taint of the creature's touch.

"So you noticed," Not-Honda's eyes were as cold as ice and his lips twisted up in mockery of a smile. "You're unexpectedly perceptive, little host."

Ryou backed away, but Not-Honda followed.

"Honda-kun! Bakura-kun!" Yuugi cried as the other three raced down the steps.

Not-Honda peered past Ryou and laughed. "Oh, I thought you were finally dead. So annoying."

"Honda, what the hell is wrong with you?" Jounouchi demanded.

"You idiots still don't understand." Honda's body rippled, expanding and contracting before he reformed into someone else.

"Bakura!" Anzu gasped.

Ryou took a sharp breath and pedaled back. His own face stared back, sharp and cruel in every angle. Yet Ryou could find no trace of the Thief King— nothing of the boy he once was. The darkness pooled in this reflection's eyes was deeper and far emptier. From its abyss, one name rose to mind— loud and clear as klaxons.

Shadii had muttered the name once inside the Puzzle: Zorc Necrophades, darkness and destruction personified. How long had it been toying with them? It wore their faces— Honda’s, Bakura’s, Ryou’s— like masks to be discarded at a whim. Anger ignited in the pit of Ryou’s gut.

“You let him die,” Ryou accused. If Zorc rewound time to save Bakura from his demise once, it could have done it again. The only explanation was it chose not to.

The puppet-master smiled, “He outlived his usefulness.”

Ryou struck him so hard that it drew blood from the monster's lips. “We will defeat you,” he promised.

It laughed.

* * *

Together with Yuugi and the others, Ryou kept that promise to Zorc.

The pharaoh— Atem stood like a shining beacon. He brandished the necklace with his name as if it was his sword. The monstrous Zorc gave a fearsome cry, but not even his fury could rock the foundation of Ryou's inner castle. It was the death keen of a creature whose end was nigh. The final boss always met its end at the hands of the adventurers. That was the nature of games— a given ending.

Horakthy's light tickled. Her glow reached into Ryou's chest like gentle hands unraveling the dark threads from the tangled mesh of his soul. Ryou reached out with his left hand to cradle an orb of light. Warmth spread from his fingertips to his toes, filling him with a sense of peace he had never known.

He hoped that Bakura would also find peace at long last.


End file.
